*As always standard disclaimers apply*

" 'Till the Day We Die "

By Catzi-Star

The year is after colony 198, and it is a rainy May day. Zechs stood outside on his balcony holding a gun. Reminiscing about the past wars made him weary. Wufei was right though; too many people had died for Treize. Zechs felt partly responsible for all the soldiers' deaths since he himself worked for Trieze before he died in battle. Standing on the earth he had once tried to destroy made him feel unworthy.

"This earth, is my goodbye. I never deserved to live on you or the colonies anyway," Zechs said. There was a shot, then silence.

Relena did not cry for Zechs. She did not want to appear weak to him. Besides, he had entrusted her with the Sanc Kingdom. A queen of her statis did not deserve to cry for such an outstanding citizen. Of course the gundam pilots, Sally Po, Noin, Lady Une, and other were there for Zechs funeral. Noin was crying in a corner, and Hilde and Sally Po were trying to comfort her. There was not an open casket to see Zechs, however, because of his obvious suicide. The funeral service went by fast. And the gundam pilots were emotionless. Sitting in chairs, no expressions. Heero, though, thought back to when he found Zechs lying dead on the balcony. Gun flung to his side. Heero had been with Noin and Duo in Zechs' mansion reviewing some plans for Relena's terroforming project. Heero knew he should have looked after Zechs. Heero remembered how selfish Zechs' suicide had been. He thought of Relena and Noin, and how much they loved him. Zechs had a wonderful life ahead of him, and he just had to kill himself. All Heero could remember thinking when he saw Zechs lying there dead was: Damn you Zechs. Did you even think of Relena?

After the funeral, once all the other people had left, the gundam pilots, and all the others came to talk to Relena. Relena was standing next to a beautiful flowering tree. Her back was to everyone.

"Excuse me? Relena? Are you alright?" Noin asked.

"Yes Noin I'm fine but you should not worry about me," Relena answered.

"But Relena Zechs was your brother, and he loved you so much, and entrusted you with such a heavy job like being queen. And we know that he would do anything to protect you."

Relena turned her back to everyone. Heero stared at Relena's hair blowing in the wind.

"Don't worry about protection. All of us will protect you until the day we die. And you know that at least we've got a good reputation now," Duo said. Relena turned to look at everyone. Everyone was smiling very kindly at her. Even Heero. Relena knew that as long as Heero was not dead, she would always remain happy.

"Yes, I know all of you would die for me, and that is very admirable of you. I promise though, to never let myself slip and commit suicide. You all mean too much to me for that to happen."

However Relena's promise was not kept for long. In the year after colony 200, Relena could not keep up with the political statis that everyone expected of her. So much paper work, and meetings, had not given her a day's rest in over 48 hours. Also, she almost got killed a million times, but thanks to Heero not one of the assassins succeeded. Relena remembered how Heero got hurt very badly many times from trying to save her. That made Relena very ashamed and angry with herself.

On a cold rainy October day, it happened. Relena went into the kitchen of her hotel suite and grabbed a bread knife. Walking out onto the deck of her suite, she slit her wrists. Twice. Slowly Relena fell to her knees and watched the blood flow down her arms and drip on the deck. It only hurt for a second though. Soon Relena felt no pain, and drifted off into a long, long, sleep.

Heero wasn't there to save her this time.

I know I know the fic was kind of short and sad. (I have a thing for writing sad mushy fics ^_^;) But this time I just wanted to write a dramatic, straight-to-the-point fic. (I finished this fic in one day!)

Anyway, comments, constructive criticism, even flames, send them to: Ccoke@aol.com Like I say in a lot of my fics: I LOVE TO GET MAIL! Doesn't everyone?